Blast from the Past: The joy of cheques
When was the last time you wrote or cashed a cheque? If you are under the age of 30, probably never, you may not even know what this old buzzard is talking about.
Let me explain. A cheque is a document that orders a bank, building society (or credit union) to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. Despite these days of electronic-everything, cheques still exist.
Getting your first chequebook was a sign that you were a fully-fledged, competent adult.
There was authority in writing a cheque. Taking a pen out of your pocket, signing it with a flourish and sliding it across a table to someone.
If you were really slick (or just a poseur) you had a chequebook holder and matching pen (perhaps like the ones contestants used to win on Blankety Blank).
One could have great fun with cheques, like postdating them for 50 years in the future. Particularly funny as a birthday gift for a ungrateful child.
Posing with massive cardboard cheques for charity is thankfully still a thing, because, let’s face it, a
a massive computer printout of your transaction confirmation isn't going to make the pages of the News Letter.